Developing an iOS based speech recognition application for the elderly

• Main Author: Nagpal, Mehak
• Other Authors: Miao Chun Yan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52567
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The purpose of this project was to provide a speech recognition application for the elderly. It would be deployed on the iPhone, leveraging on its intuitive, consistent and user friendly interface. The main trends in this field were analyzed through the study of past projects and research undertaken by different universities and institutions. It was observed that most of the elderly were willing to adapt to new technologies for mobile communication as long as it was easy to use and facilitated independent living. This is of primary importance to the project – providing the required functionality in an easy to understand yet effective manner. Keeping these findings in mind, the application Ivy was developed to suit the needs of the target demographic. Ivy accepts speech input from the user and decodes it to implement the action requested for by the user. Adequate testing and performance evaluation was undertaken to ensure quality of the final product. The features are compared with existing services and project, and limitations of the application are highlighted. In light of these, recommendations for future development have been discussed. This project hopes to bring the ever advancing computer science research one step closer to bridging the gaping technological divide between the youth and the elderly population. It aims to bring simple, human centric mobile communication technology into their lives, thereby helping to alleviate their sense of isolation and loneliness, and improving their quality of life.